Scary! Big Brother To Monitor Every Car In UK British police have been building a system of cameras and license plate recognition software that will monitor every road in the UK and deploy "what promises to be one the most pervasive surveillance systems on earth." The system will be able to determine the whereabouts of every vehicle in the UK and where it goes. "The control centre is intended to go live in April of next year, and is intended to be processing 50 million number plates a day by year end." The Register 11/16/05
Posted: 11/16/2005 4:53 pm
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ICA Looking Forward To New Home Boston's Institute of Contemporary Arts is on track and on time for next September's opening of its much-anticipated new home on the city's waterfront. "The new ICA, designed by the New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, will be marked by a distinctive glass cantilever that stretches out toward Boston's harbor. Inside, it will feature a 325-seat theater and two-story educational center. The 65,000-square-foot museum will triple the ICA's current exhibition space... ICA leaders hope the museum will transform an institution that's been considered no match for its counterparts in other major cities." Boston Globe 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 6:22 am
Swiss Art Seizure Denounced As 'Financial Terrorism' The businessman behind Swiss authorities' seizure of 54 paintings from Moscow's Pushkin State Museum this week has been trying to collect a debt from the Russian government for 14 years, and his "relentless legal assault on Russian assets abroad has previously been denounced... as "financial terrorism'... This is a man, after all, who once filed suit to seize President Vladimir V. Putin's personal jet. In 2000, he impounded a Russian sailing ship in the French port of Brest, along with its crew, for 11 days. He nearly seized two Russian fighter jets at an air show in Paris a year later." The New York Times 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 6:05 am
- Previously: Swiss Seize Pushkin Paintings Swiss police have seized paintings belonging to the Pushkin Museum. "The 25 paintings - part of a collection on loan to an exhibit in Martigny - were seized on behalf of a local firm which claims Russia owes it money. The Pierre Gianadda Foundation display, which included works by Manet, Renoir, Picasso and Matisse, was said to have been insured for $1bn (£597m). The company, Noga, said it was owed money for food deliveries in the 1990s." BBC 11/16/05
Posted: 11/16/2005 8:31 am
MIA Only $25m Away From Campaign Goal The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has officially taken its $100 million capital campaign out of the so-called "quiet phase," having already raised $75 million from its wealthiest donors. "Part of the money will pay for a $50 million renovation and addition to the museum's building, a nearly complete project designed by Michael Graves that is scheduled to open June 11, 2006. The additional $50 million will be invested as an endowment for the purchase of art, especially 20th-century objects." Minneapolis Star Tribune 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 4:58 am
Italian Trial Signals Shift In Artifact Policies "Behind this shift, museum directors, curators and lawyers say, are broad changes in the way source countries are pursuing and enforcing cultural property claims - and the public's perception of those claims. Caught in the cross hairs, museums face pressure to clean up their act and embrace rigorous standards for future acquisitions - and to return prized works acquired in past decades. 'In the eyes of the public, there is a sense that the museum is a greedy hoarder of ill-gotten goods, in opposition to the legitimate claims of the powerless'."
The New York Times 11/16/05
Posted: 11/16/2005 6:49 pm
True Appears At Italian Art Trial Ex-Getty curator Marion True appears in Rome for the start of her trial for trafficking in stolen antiquities. "True, together with art dealer Robert Hecht, denies two separate charges involving 35 artefacts bought between 1986 and the late 1990s. They include bronze Etruscan pieces, frescoes, and painted Greek Vessels. The Getty museum has stood by Ms True's work. She left the court after the hearing without comment." BBC 11/16/05
Posted: 11/16/2005 4:35 pm
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Music As Brain Food "Stanford University research has found for the first time that musical training improves how the brain processes the spoken word, a finding that researchers say could lead to improving the reading ability of children who have dyslexia and other reading problems. The study, made public Wednesday, is the first to show that musical experience can help the brain improve its ability to distinguish between rapidly changing sounds that are key to understanding and using language." San Francisco Chronicle 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 6:45 am
Winnipeg Scales Back New Music Fest For the last decade and more, the Winnipeg Symphony's annual new music festival has served as a shining example of how orchestras can present contemporary works without driving audiences out of the concert hall. But this year, the WSO has announced a stripped-down version of the festival in response to declining ticket sales and waning public interest. Gone will be the well-regarded composers' competition, and there will be no high-profile composer-in-residence, as there has been in past years. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 5:21 am
Russia's Dueling Opera Giants "Opera has long had a prominent role in Russian cultural life, and the Bolshoi and Mariinsky have dominated the scene since the outset." The two companies have survived political turmoil, societal upheaval, and other threats for well over two centuries. But in post-Soviet Russia, adaptability is an absolute necessity for arts organizations, and the Bolshoi and Mariinsky have been struggling to maintain their international profiles at a time when budgets are tight and classical music faces an uncertain future. Still, both companies are pushing ahead with ambitious plans for the future. Russia Profile 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 5:13 am
Doin' It My Way In Death The most popular music at UK funerals? Frank Sinatra sing "My Way." "When not organising the final sendoff of 80,000 Britons each year, Co-operative Funeralcare likes to compile charts of favourite numbers heard at funerals. Its research reveals that popular songs now account for 40% of all music chosen for funerals. Hymns account for 55% and classical works a mere 5%." The Guardian (UK) 11/16/05
Posted: 11/16/2005 7:43 pm
To Download Or Not To Download, That Is The Question It seems that "MP3s have spawned a listening culture that has less respect for listening to a composition from start to finish. Of course, this already started with the fast forward button on CD players, which is probably still why am so attracted to LPs since lifting and dropping needles is harder to do than just letting the music play out. Nowadays, unless something is 100% compelling—and ultimately what is?—it's just too easy to tune it out and move onto the next thing, ultimately never truly listening to anything." NewMusicBox 11/16/05
Posted: 11/16/2005 6:40 pm
Down With The Piano! (It's Evil) "Mistaken as a democratic instrument for its ease of playing, the piano has established a mode of experiencing sound that has led to the downfall of western music. Fast fingers, such as Liberace's with added diamonds for emphasis, delight the eyes and ears. Children and adults plunk keys to receive instant aural gratification. Something so beguiling and easy must have a price." NewMusicBox 11/16/05
Posted: 11/16/2005 6:37 pm
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U.S. To Maintain Internet Control A U.N. conference on global internet issues has spawned an agreement that will work to combat cybercrime and e-mail "spam," but which also leaves the internet firmly under U.S. control, a controversial move opposed by many other countries. "A U.N. working group, followed by governments including China, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and the 25-member European Union, had all proposed taking away control of the domain name 'root zone file' from the United States and handing it off to a multinational agency... The United States and business groups had opposed the proposals, arguing that multilateral control would compromise the stability of the system, and that the current model has generally worked well." Wired 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 5:56 am
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It Can't Really Be Any Less Legit Than Cats, Can It? An effort to build a permanent home in New York City for the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil has stalled after opponents objected to the location and questioned whether the project was an appropriate use for civic money designed to prop up struggling local companies. One state assemblyman went so far as to declare that Cirque, which puts on shows around the world, is not 'legitimate' theatre. Organizers "originally planned to [build] a classical music center that would have been overseen by the Orchestra of St. Luke's. But the developer instead decided to create space for House of Blues, a large nightclub and music hall. When that proposal ran into opposition at the City Planning Department and Community Board 4, [planners] turned to the idea of Cirque." The New York Times 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 5:34 am
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Recognition A Long Time Coming This year's winners of Canada's two biggest literary awards belong to a similar demographic: middle-aged writers who have toiled in relative obscurity throughout their careers, "producing novels that are tight, spare in length and written in a distinctive style" without ever capturing more than a cult following. All that has changed now for Giller winner David Bergen and Governor-General's Award winner David Gilmour, and both authors admit to a certain feeling of redemption after years of disappointment. "The real enemy for a writer, it's not booze. It's vanity that will kill you deader than anything else." Toronto Star 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 6:48 am
Teen Poetry Recitation Contest Announced "The Chicago-based Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts are to announce Thursday the national rollout of their verse-recitation contest for high schoolers... Some $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends are to be awarded at the national finals, including a $20,000 scholarship for the grand winner... The organizers hope to tap into the popularity of poetry slams among teens. But this contest will emphasize memorization and performance skills, not creative writing. Contestants will select poems from a special anthology to be distributed to schools or from a Web site being set up for the event." Chicago Tribune 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 6:37 am
Editors Jump From Penguin To Random House Two highly successful editors from the Penguin Group have announced that they will leave the company to head up a new division at Random House. "The move by the editors, Celina Spiegel and Julie Grau, was a major loss for Penguin, where [the imprint they brought to prominence] is celebrating its 10th anniversary and is having a stellar year, with nine of its books having reached The New York Times's best-seller list, two of them climbing to No. 1." The New York Times 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 6:18 am
Nat'l Book Awards To Vollman, Didion "Europe Central, a sprawling series of 37 intertwined stories by William T. Vollmann that examine the moral decisions of characters, some real and some fictional, in Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II, won the National Book Award for fiction on Wednesday night... It was a surprise victory over for Mr. Vollmann over E. L. Doctorow, a previous winner and literary lion; Mary Gaitskill, a sentimental favorite for her piercing stories that demonstrate a willingness to challenge societal norms; and two other finalists." In the non-fiction category, Joan Didion took home the top prize for her memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking. The New York Times 11/17/05
Posted: 11/17/2005 6:11 am
Pretend Reading (It's All The Rage) "This holiday season, a new and perverse variation on this age-old standby is making the rounds at Manhattan soirées. Instead of 'Read any good books lately?', you are far more likely to hear: 'Pretended to read any good books lately?' Yes, this season it’s all about faking it—i.e., carrying around the 'It' book but not actually bothering to read it." New York Observer 11/16/05
Posted: 11/16/2005 10:20 pm
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TV Networks: Digital Recorders Boost Viewership "Advertisers and investors have watched the entry of DVRs into the mass market, led by TiVo, with a wary eye for several years. Some predicted the features that let viewers skip ads and watch programs at their convenience would spell the death of ad-supported broadcast TV and its prime-time programming schedule. But in their research on the use of DVRs, the television networks said the technology offered an opportunity to attract viewers who might otherwise miss shows when they first air." Yahoo! (Reuters) 11/16/05
Posted: 11/16/2005 5:14 pm
Sony Agrees To Recall Of CD's Under intense media and consumer pressure, Sony has agreed to recall 2 million CD's bacuse of a malicious software anti-piracy measure. "Sony BMG has used the XCP copy-protection software on 49 titles from artists such as Celine Dion and Sarah McLachlan and produced an estimated 4.7 million music CDs. Around 2.1 million units have been sold on to consumers. The software, developed by a British firm, First4Internet, installs itself on a personal computer used to play the CD in order to guard against copying, but it leaves the back door open for malicious hackers." Wired 11/16/05
Posted: 11/16/2005 4:46 pm
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Colorado Ballet Scraps Nutcracker Performances Colorado Ballet has cancelled six performances of this year's Nutcracker. "These performances had been showing poor ticket sales, and their cancellation will save the company the labor and rental fees owed the city. The company is currently paying down debts incurred from engagements this season and last at city-owned venues." Rocky Mountain News 11/16/05
Posted: 11/16/2005 9:48 pm
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